Conquering Challenges on the Road to 7 Figures with Ben Sturtevant

Andy Splichal:

Welcome to the Make Each Click Count podcast. This is your host, Andy Spleckel, and we are happy to welcome this week's guest to discuss today's topic, which is conquering challenges on the road to seven figures. Today's guest is CEO of Elite360, where in the last two years they have helped over 2000 businesses grow and scale by bridging the gap between cutting edge technology and related marketing strategy. A big welcome to Ben Sturtavan. Hi Ben.

Ben Sturtevant:

Hey Andy. Thanks for having me. Good job on the name. You hit it. You nailed it.

Andy Splichal:

I was a little nervous about it, I got to tell you.

Ben Sturtevant:

I get it.

Andy Splichal:

So that's great. Hey, for those that might not know quickly, what is Elite 360 and why have you been able to grow so quickly?

Ben Sturtevant:

So Elite 360 is an all in one digital marketing platform, a service I'd compare it to sort of Cartra or kajabi with a few more bells and whistles. But it was created from a standpoint of marketers. So in other words, we're not tech people. We partnered with a five year old tech company with hundreds of programmers. Elite 360 is a system that we've pre built through 20 years, my 20 years of experience in the digital marketing space, working with thousands and thousands of clients with a pretty big flaw in their process. A lot of them are missing a back end system. They have a lot of holes. I call them holes, the leaky bucket syndrome.

Ben Sturtevant:

A lot of holes in their system. So we pre built a digital marketing platform with a lot of that already done for them. So essentially it's giving them the tech that they need, but more importantly, the marketing automation tools and resources, sort of pre built so that they can come work with us, hit the ground running, and immediately see profits and results in their business.

Andy Splichal:

Go ahead. Well, I was going to say that's great. I mean, it really piqued my curiosity. I have make each click count is built on Cartra so I'm familiar with the space. What are you offering? What do you do for your clients as far as the different services?

Ben Sturtevant:

So the foundation of our business, I guess I would call it the main backend, is coaching consulting. So we basically identify businesses that are looking to optimize and scale and grow. We specialize in the high ticket community. So a lot of marketing agencies, a lot of consultants, course creators, and typically they'll come to us with chaos, frustration, plateau, revenue. They're looking to scale, but they can't quite break through. So what we'll do is we'll evaluate their entire business, identify where those holes are and we'll go in. We implement what I call the elite operating system, which is the system that we've laid out, that we've pre built inside of elite 360. So it's really a plug and play sort of situation.

Ben Sturtevant:

So it's a combination of consulting, marketing strategy, but also implementation of our tools. So imagine CARtra comes preloaded with everything that you're going to need to build your business and launch it and run it effectively without you having to build out anything, building out all the automations, the email, the lead magnets, the funnels, all of that stuff is done for them. And all we really need to do is kind of marry the two, which is taking their strategy and where they want to go, who their target audience is, and we implement it for them.

Andy Splichal:

So you do the email, you do the funnels, but where are the templates? They're all pre built, but how did you create those?

Ben Sturtevant:

Through years and years of experience based on the audiences or the clients that we've worked with over the years, there's some main niches that we stay in. Obviously, like I said, marketing agencies, that tends to be a lot of the people that we work with, consultants, coaches, course creators, experts. So we have a database that we've pre built ourselves. They're custom, but then we'll customize them to the client as well. Right. So we match their branding. It's a 90 day process. Usually they work with us for 90 days.

Ben Sturtevant:

At the end of those 90 days, they'll either continue to work with us or they can take it over themselves if they want to, but we'll customize it specific to them and their brand.

Andy Splichal:

How did you determine there was a need for your product before going live? That's something that many businesses, when they first launch, they'll jump into. Maybe they don't do the research, but how did you figure out that you would be successful when you first so.

Ben Sturtevant:

I got started in the digital marketing space back in 2003. I ran my very first pay per click ad in 2003. I was building funnels. Before funnels were funnels, leads were $0.05 each, and you could say whatever you wanted on your ads. It was awesome. It was the Wild west. It was easy. Over the years, as I had success in the digital marketing space, I started consulting and got into the fractional CMO space, really, and would work with all types of businesses.

Ben Sturtevant:

Hands down, 100% of the businesses that I would go into suffered from this leaky bucket syndrome that I've sort of coined. And it was very common where they would have a good product. They probably had some sales and some customers, but they had massive holes in their back end systems, or they had no systems at all. Some didn't even have email, follow up automation, just some very basic things. They weren't using abandoned cart, they weren't using abandoned calendar sequences, they weren't retargeting at all, or they weren't doing it properly, just missing a tremendous amount of revenue because they didn't have a real clue on what they were doing. So that's really where Elite 360 came from, was how can we make this process easier so that we can implement it into businesses quicker and faster and get them returns and results easier, rather than them having to go out and hire a team of people, hire marketing experts, hire all these people to come in and build things and do things for them. How can we implement this quicker and get quick wins for clients? Right away, that's really where it stemmed from.

Andy Splichal:

If somebody is already using, and I keep going back to cartridge, not because that's, well, I use it and I'm thinking it, but there's other ones out there, clickfunnels or whatever you're using. But if somebody has their system in place and they call you, I mean, I guess it's because they're unsatisfied. But how do you convince them to try something different? Because with anything, there's a long learning curve. Well, most things, there's a long learning curve. So you've already put in this time, as a business owner, why would you make the switch to elite?

Ben Sturtevant:

Well, for most of our clients, they're not using an all in one. They're like what I was doing before, I had clickfunnels over here, and I had Kajabi over here for my courses, and I had activecampaign and mailchimp for email, and I had type form for form. So most businesses have a very disjointed tech stack. So for most of them, it's very easy because what we'll do is we offer migration service. So we'll say, hey, we'll just move it all over for you. You'll have it all in one place, you'll save a ton of money and you'll be able to work less. But our main product on the back end, Andy, is working with clients. We'll work with them wherever they are.

Ben Sturtevant:

If they want to stay where they're at, that's totally fine, right? We'll help them plug their holes no matter what, but what we find. And this is where, again, where Elite 360 came from. Most tools and systems don't have the full picture. They might have one piece, but they don't have something else. They don't have AI, they don't have texting, they don't have something. And we incorporate all of that just to make it again, like I said, that sort of that one stop shop for the customer. But that's more for us, right? Meaning it's a lot easier to work with a client when you have something pre built and you can get them quicker wins. If you're implementing this with just one tool rather than all these different tech.

Andy Splichal:

Stacks, you hit on one of my favorite words, which is a quick win. What are some of the quick wins that you typically can get your customers? What do you look at first implementing for them?

Ben Sturtevant:

Well, the first thing most of these clients, they don't do a lot of back end marketing, meaning they don't do things like re offers or what we call two steps. So we'll immediately come in and do a reactivation campaign. So we'll take their list that's most likely been dormant, or they just get their once a month email newsletter and we'll put together a new lead magnet. We'll put together something that is attractive that their market hasn't seen or that their list hasn't seen before. And we'll help them implement it, usually with sort of a Jeff Walker launch formula. Like we'll do some teasers, we'll do, hey, something's coming. Be on the lookout, text blast, voicemail drop. These are all things that our system can do.

Ben Sturtevant:

We'll drop some video, we'll put a little campaign behind it, and then we do a kickoff. And typically that results for our clients who specialize in the high ticket space. So they do a lot of book calls, right, sales calls, a massive influx of calls. We'll constantly have clients say things like, hey, I don't have more room on my calendar, I'm two weeks booked out. We got to turn it off, those types of things. That's the quick win we're looking for.

Andy Splichal:

Now, you mentioned AI, and I mean, that's a huge topic right now. Of course I assume you do because you mentioned it. But how have you incorporated AI into Elite 360?

Ben Sturtevant:

What's in a lot of places, we have a very standard sort of search, ask a question, very similar to Chat GPT. In fact, it piggybacks on the Chat GPT function where they can ask questions and do all the different types of things. But then we've built out some custom things as well. So we have an email content section, we have ad section where you could actually prompt it, teach it and have it write your email, have it write your ad copy, have it write your blog posts. That's all built into the different sections of the system. So, for example, when you go to set up an email campaign, just like you would in activecampaign or Cartra or something like that, having the ability to prompt the AI to do it for you is there built into the system. In addition, we've incorporated it into image creation. So we have, obviously, you can host your media, you can post images on your funnels, your blogs, that sort of thing.

Ben Sturtevant:

And there's an image creation AI feature as well. And then we have just recently launched our AI chat bot. So this is a fully trainable chat bot that you can train it from submitting your faqs, you can submit your websites, and the system will learn about your business and what those faqs are. So as they're coming in over messenger chat, Facebook chat, over text, email, the system can respond for you. There's a 24/7 feature, so you can just leave it on or you can do it as it comes in. But that's probably our most popular use of AI right now.

Andy Splichal:

Yeah, no, that's great. Do you have a favorite example of a client's results you could share that came to you and how you helped them grow?

Ben Sturtevant:

Oh God, there's so many. Yes. I mean, we work with so many different types of clients. I guess one that comes to top of mind was probably Miguel Miguel Diaz. My driven life fitness. They were doing great. 1015, their online fitness coaching business, doing very well, but they were doing it all organically. And what I mean by that is they were just connecting with people from their social media.

Ben Sturtevant:

They had no nurture process in place, they had no ecosystem. They weren't having leads come into their system that they could nurture and grow into future clients. So essentially the only way that they were communicating with people was one to one, right. They came in, we helped them implement the Elite 360 system and the elite operating system, and they've grown, I think they're doing over 200 with their business, with really no additional ad spend. What they've been doing is they've implemented our system. So they're capturing leads with lead magnets, they're building their list now. They're able to do things like re offers, they're able to do things like broadcast text messages and voicemail blasts to the people that aren't ready to book a call. And that's very, the average customer that we run into, they're a slave.

Ben Sturtevant:

They're basically working a job. They're trading time for money because they're spending time physically communicating with someone in the dms or trying to reach out to people organically. But there's no 80% plus of those people are not going to engage, they're not going to take that next step, schedule a call, buy their product, whatever, right then and there, because they don't have that trust yet. Right. So that's sort of the power of our system is it brings them into an ecosystem where they're going to get multiple touch points. And that average prospect needs twelve to 24 touches before they make a decision to work with us. Most of our clients are five k plus with their product offer. So this isn't like a $97 course, that's a completely different strategy.

Ben Sturtevant:

But in order to get someone on a sales call, in order to get someone to spend that kind of money with you, that nurture is really important. People like Miguel, I mean, there's so many different stories of people who have done that. In addition, we get a tremendous amount of testimonials from people. Just in the savings alone, our software is $97 a month by itself. And some of these people were spending thousand plus for their tech stack. That's what I was doing. We were spending 2500 a month with all the different tools and we've consolidated it into one. So there's a numerous.

Andy Splichal:

Right? Yeah. No, that's a whole lot less expensive than most people are paying that have that set up. Now you had mentioned your experience in PPC went back to 2003 and that Miguel wasn't spending anymore. Do you guys offer help with paid ads, paid traffic?

Ben Sturtevant:

We do. We have a division of our company that is an in house agency. We'll run your Facebook TikTok, YouTube ads. We do. It's mainly for our clients. We don't market it to the public a whole lot, but it is there for sure.

Andy Splichal:

Now, let's switch to you. I'm curious personally, and it's one of my favorite questions I ask everybody who comes on. But are there any business books that you can attribute to your journey as an entrepreneur?

Ben Sturtevant:

There's so many. That's just a small handful, but probably I'll give you some basic ones or the foundational ones, I should say. Number one, start with why by Sami Sinek. Great book for people who, I mean, connecting with, the reason that you're doing this is so important as you hit that emotional roller coaster, as you know, being an entrepreneur, you've got to have a strong connection of why you're doing it. That also has a direct impact in your sales and your revenue and your team and the energy and the focus in your business. So start with why is a big one story brand by Donald Miller? That's another one. If you haven't read that one, that's fantastic. Very simple principles of what you should be focusing on in your business.

Ben Sturtevant:

Kind of eliminating some of the noise and really breaking it down and having a clear understanding across your entire company of what your business should be doing. That's huge launch. I mentioned it earlier by Jeff Walker. A great book for business owners who are trying to learn marketing or trying to gain some insight into how to really effectively put their offer out there. And then from some more of a personal development standpoint, I'd say hands down. Failing forward by John C. Maxwell. Another great book.

Ben Sturtevant:

So many. I've worked with tens of thousands of people over the years, and a lot of the people who don't make it just are not prepared for the emotional toll that running a business can take on you. Being an entrepreneur is a lonely journey and it's a roller coaster. And so if you're not mentally prepared for that and constantly reinforcing where you're going and what you're doing, it can be really difficult. But that's a great book that can kind of help frame that in the right way.

Andy Splichal:

So how did you get involved with Elite 360? What's your background? You had mentioned you've been in digital marketing since the early two thousand s. Yeah.

Ben Sturtevant:

So as I said, I sort of started transition into a fractional CMO role. I was going in and working with a lot of different types of companies, and then a few years ago, I came on with a very large consulting marketing consulting company in the high ticket space and sort of took over their CMO and COO roles. And it was really my interaction with them that led to the creation of El E 360. It was a real need from those clients that were just completely drowning, not only under trying to learn marketing, but then the technology that goes behind it, it seemed to hamstrung a lot of clients. So it was created to provide a solution. Right? To provide mainly a solution for us is I'm trying to go in and work with these clients to help them implement things that they need in their business. Instead of having to go to all these different places and have these customers now spend all this money, let's just create our own right. Let's create it the way that we want it and what we need to give customers that we know works, and let's just solve the problem.

Ben Sturtevant:

And so that's where it came from.

Andy Splichal:

So have there been any challenges that you've experienced on trying to get results for your users?

Ben Sturtevant:

Yeah, I mean, anytime you're dealing with technology, you're going to run into challenges. If they're not willing or they don't have someone on their team that can kind of be their tech person, that's a challenge. So that's the kind of thing that will lead to churn. Now, we obviously provide complete onboarding. We'll do their migration for our clients. If someone's just coming to us with the software, like a $97 a month customer, obviously we can't do all of that for them. Right. So they're going to be learning from scratch.

Ben Sturtevant:

So the churn is probably that person's biggest problem or our problem with those customers. In any software business, churn is an issue, and it's the ones that just aren't willing to plug into the training. We have live zoom support. They can get on Monday through Friday and share their screen and get answers to questions. 24/7 chat support is available, so the resources are there. But that's probably the thing that the biggest challenge that we face is customers that just aren't willing to put in the time to learn those things. But that's where our consulting on the back end comes from, is because we'll do it for them. So you're either going to do it yourself with time, or you're going to pay someone to do it, is what it comes down to.

Andy Splichal:

So let's talk about the pricing. You had mentioned you offer a $97 option. If people want to do it themselves, what is the migration? If somebody wants to have you guys fully switch them over from what they're.

Ben Sturtevant:

Using now so they can buy what are called if it's just migration. So there's no consulting. We're not going to be creating anything from scratch, writing their email copy, building their funnels, all their graphics and all that. We call them elite points. And essentially it's $500 for 40 hours and 300 for 20 hours. And what determines the hours? It just determined by what they need done. If they need something built from scratch, it's going to take up more points. And a simple migration is just one for one.

Ben Sturtevant:

So if all someone wanted was migration, they typically would do a $300 and they'll get 20 hours of migration. They'll move over their funnels, they'll move over their courses, they'll move over their email. With all of the automation, whatever they have in place, they'll move it over.

Andy Splichal:

And who is the person that, if they're out there listening, who is this person that they should be contacting you.

Ben Sturtevant:

Guys for the migration, just for your service? Well, they can go to Elite 360 IO, and they can chat with us live online, or they can book a 15 minutes zoom. That'll either go to myself or someone on my team.

Andy Splichal:

But what about the avatar? Like, it's selling high ticket items, the.

Ben Sturtevant:

High ticket coaches, consultants and marketing agencies. We have a lot of people in the marketing agency space that we've worked with over the years. Typically it's people who have a five k plus offer online and they're booking sales calls. That's our specialty. That's who we work with the most. We have had some brick and mortar, some solar companies, some real estate companies that are looking to do marketing and lead generation. But I'd say hands down the most common person that we work with is that marketing agency that's trying to systematize and grow their business. Because one of the things I didn't mention is we can actually help them custom build a version of Elite 360 for their business, white label to them.

Ben Sturtevant:

So that's been attractive to them because obviously they want to have their name, their brand on it, they want to customize it with what they want their clients to receive when those people buy it. So it's a part of our higher package when we work with clients one to one.

Andy Splichal:

Well, this has been great. Is there anything else you would like to add before we wrap it up today?

Ben Sturtevant:

I think if I were to offer some advice to your listeners, and I'm sure since you're in the same space that we are, the sooner that people can learn how to self audit their leaky bucket and being able to look at data and analyze where the holes are in their marketing bucket, the easier it's going to be for them to scale. The biggest mistake that we see in the space is a lot of people. We do some audits with them and they say, well, I just need more leads. My offer is great. I just need more leads. But as we really start to dig into their business, we see things that they're missing. Right. Their sales percentage is only 30% instead of 50.

Ben Sturtevant:

Right. They don't have abandoned cart or abandoned calendar campaigns. They're not doing retargeting. They don't even have nurture sequences or indoctrination sequences that are set up. They're not using texting in their marketing. They're not doing any retargeting at all. Across channels we start to identify these holes, and all of those holes represent percentages of revenue that they're losing. So our whole focus, our whole tagline is work less, make more, right? Produce less, effort for more money.

Ben Sturtevant:

And it's a complete no brainer. But most businesses are just completely unaware. They're not self aware with what's happening in their business. So it's be able to take a step back and look at your business holistically and be able to identify where those holes are. If you can do that, you don't have to pay people like us.

Andy Splichal:

Those are some great final words. I might move that up to the front of the interview.

Ben Sturtevant:

Yeah.

Andy Splichal:

Hey, thanks for joining us today.

Ben Sturtevant:

My pleasure. Great to meet you.

Andy Splichal:

All right, for listeners, remember, if you like this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave us an honest review. And if you're looking for more information regarding elite 360 or connecting with Ben, we'll put the links in the show notes below. In addition, if you're looking for more information on growing your business, check out our podcast resource center, available at podcast Makeeachclickcount.com. We have compiled all of our different past guests by show topic and included each of the contact information in case you would like more information, any of the information in previous episodes. That's it for today. Remember to stay safe, keep healthy and happy marketing I'll talk to you in the next episode.